WH Chief of Staff Accidentally Reveals First Name of ISIS Hostage

3. “Well, there were a number of standout moments, but George[,] I would say the biggest was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough suffered a slip of the tongue Sunday when he offered the first name of an American woman held hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In an interview with host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” about the ongoing situation with a Japanese hostage held by ISIL, McDonough mentioned the woman’s first name, which is not public knowledge. “As it relates to our hostages, we are obviously continuing to work those matters very, very aggressively. We will continue to press on the ground, including today, to make decisions transparently, pursuant to a political agreement, so that we can work with them to keep on the offensive against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” said McDonough on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” McDonough’s comments came during a post-State of the Union blitz that included appearances on all five major Sunday talk shows, a morning swing known as “a full Ginsburg.” Predictably given recent events — although nonetheless striking — the domestic policy agenda outlined by the president in last week’s annual address took a back seat to questions about the administration’s foreign policy.

We are sparing no expense, and sparing no effort, both in trying to make sure that we know where they are and make sure that we’re prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home.” He added that the woman’s family knows “how strongly the president feels about this. This is a relationship, given its importance, that stretches across many different things, from values straight through intelligence cooperation to defense and security assistance. To spare him the same fate, Islamic State fighters are demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman who faces the death penalty in Jordan for her role in 2005 bombings that killed dozens. It appeared to be a dramatic change in a nation that the president pointed to as evidence of his successful counterterrorism strategy just four months ago, but McDonough maintained that the administration was not “surprised that this government collapsed.” Others disagreed, including Sen.

John McCain (R., Ariz.),who said that what’s occurring in Yemen suggests that the administration’s counterterrorism strategy is failing and needs to change. “I know that’s a tough thing to say and a tough thing for Americans to swallow, but it doesn’t mean the 82nd Airborne. We ought to press their political leaders to come up with political resolutions on the ground,” McDonough said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” McDonough also fielded questions on a controversial Congressional invitation extended to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was made without prior consultation with the White House. “Is the president, is the White House, are you angry with Speaker Boehner for doing this on his own and for Netanyahu accepting it on his own without any consultation with the White House?” asked Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “Look, I don’t spend a lot of time on my emotions or getting angry…” McDonough said. “And here’s the way the president has always seen the U.S. That’s why the president thinks it doesn’t make any sense for us to meet with the prime minister two weeks before his election.” On Iran: .”We have isolated the Iranians over the course of six years. We think that results in just more cash floating around with these very hateful characters who will just have more ability to ply their trade.” MCDONOUGH: You know our policy on that, Michael.

SMERCONISH: You know that there – there have been some criticisms made by family members who say that they – they were held back by the administration from participating in negotiations that they wanted to pursue. And I’m very – I also want to be very clear that I’m neither going to divulge our conversations with them or get into a negotiation with anybody else through you on this show. They open up newspapers and watch televisions every day and they see a new hot spot, and they wonder, have we reached a tipping point where no U.S. policy is going to be capable of maintaining order worldwide?

One is, what we’re seeing is, obviously, with the democratization of media, the ability for even the most nefarious actors in the world to reach out and, through very social media outlets, get their story in front of us. We cannot be an occupying force in a place like Yemen or in Syria and hope that we will be responsible for bringing this, as you say, chaos to an end. And the third thing we’re going to do is, where there is a threat to us – and you I have had this conversation going back to 2007 – we will take action to protect the American people. MCDONOUGH: Well, the president did tick through several things that we have made progress on, unemployment from 10 down to 5.6 percent, 10 million people with now access to health care, health care costs at the lowest level in more than 50 years now for four years in a row, more energy production, be that clean energy, or be that oil and gas, in this country than ever before. Middle-class families like the ones you grew up in Doylestown or the ones I grew up with in Stillwater, Minnesota, have not seen the kind of wage growth that they deserve.

The crisis having been passed, now we have got to get at the one remaining issue, which is, how does the middle class get the fair shot that they deserve?